|
Select Invitees
Delhi: It was a political get-together all right. But what were diplomats doing at
Subramanian Swamy's much-publicised tea party in the capital last week? Though it was
meant to be an occasion for Sonia Gandhi and J. Jayalalitha to forge an alliance, some
felt that since Defence Minister George Fernandes was the target of the aiadmk supremo's
ire, the invitation of select foreign guests was deliberate. Among the diplomats who
turned up were the high commissioner of Pakistan and the ambassador of China -- two
countries not high on the defence minister's list of favourites -- and a representative
from the Nigerian Embassy. If the diplomats planned to make political capital out of the
occasion, they were sorely disappointed. Congress and AIADMK MPs, putting their arms
around each other and posing for photographs, virtually stonewalled the two leaders.
"This is like the Indo-Pak summit. It's impossible to get through," Pakistani
High Commissioner Ashraf Jehangir Qazi was heard complaining. Toiling in Vain
Hyderabad: Civil servants in Andhra Pradesh
dread the late-night ring of their telephones. Invariably, it is a call from the chief
minister's office or one of N. Chandrababu Naidu's emissaries demanding information by
daybreak. And what Naidu asks for is no small errand. The other night, a stunned secretary
had to track down a couple of deputies and stay awake gathering all the details about
borewells in the state and present himself at the chief minister's residence at the crack
of dawn. It's another matter that Naidu met the bleary-eyed man only by noon. Similarly, a
babu asked to prepare a speech about Naidu's pet Janmabhoomi programme was shocked the
next day when after waiting for hours he was told that another speech was ready. Having
switched to election mode Naidu needs all the information to make tall claims about his
ministry. But the mad rush is at the cost of displeasing a sleepless bureaucracy.
Meek Argument
Bangalore: When Union Urban Affairs Minister
Ram Jethmalani inaugurated HUDCO's individual loan scheme in Bangalore on March 27, he
quoted the Bible to pepper his largely statistical speech. "The Bible says,"
began Jethmalani, "blessed are the poor, for they shall inherit the earth. And this
is one biblical prophecy that went wrong." But the legal eagle learnt soon after his
speech that the beatitude from Christ's Sermon on the Mount was misquoted. At a quiet
dinner meeting later he corrected himself saying that it should have been "blessed
are the meek". But he insisted that meek means poor. Meek means humble and
submissive, someone pointed out. Do the poor and meek really inherit the earth? That's why
we have our schemes, was Jethmalani's prompt reply.
Giving No Lift
Delhi: Inter-party bonhomie may be the new
mantra in times of coalition politics. But for the Congress, dealing with intra-party
friction is problem enough. Once party mates, former prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and
his food minister Kalpnath Rai can't bear to be in the same room -- or the same elevator.
As it happened at the Ashok Hotel where both were attending a party. Rao and his SPG
guards were about to step into an elevator when Rai, who had occupied it first, stormed
out in a huff. What happened? asked waiting journalists. A fuming Rai, who firmly believes
that Mr Pout was responsible for his political downfall, said he had promised himself not
to be seen with or even look at his former prime minister. |
